Tol Eressea

[Arvegil145]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

This is a question that cannot be answered with certainty. The was a discussion a few years ago in the Books forum that, at least, touched upon this, though the ultimate question was what did Tolkien decide regarding the source of the version of the Red Book that he ultimately "translated?" The thread was entitled Transmission Theory, and by no means am I suggesting that your question has already been discussed or should not be addressed here.

Certainly, Tol Eressea remained a component of his mythos until the end. Similarly, Pengolodh makes appearances late in Tolkien's philosophical musings. Aelfwine also appears in his writings at least as late as the 1950s. Some argue that Aelfwine (a favorite of mine) was no longer necessary after JRRT initially settled upon Bilbo/Frodo's Red Book as the source of his stories, and later questioned whether early mythology was from Numenor, explaining inconsistencies with science.

Sorry if I wasn't all too clear in my OP, but my main concern was how much of the description of Eressea could be salvaged from the BoLT, in light of the fact that TNS doesn't include Aelfwine/Eriol framework.

I feel like, in the process of abandoning the Eriol framework, the baby got thrown out with the bathwater. The baby in this analogy being the only vivid, detailed description of Tol Eressea we ever got.

I'm not exactly sure how this could be accomplished, since Eriol is so deeply intertwined with the Eressea material, but I think it should at least be attempted - and if this could be done, my idea (which I mentioned before on this subforum) would be a sort of analogue to the A Description of the Island of Numenor (except with Eressea instead of Numenor) given as an appendix.